On the game:
"There was a lot of energy in the building, and they made shots early and got a lot of confidence. I felt like we were on our heels early."

On Oakland's Reggie Hamilton:
"I thought Reggie Hamilton did a great job of running this team from start to finish. I told our guys that our biggest emphasis was you have to be able to guard your man ... really him more than anything because they feed off of his penetration.

"I told the guys, if we don't stay on him, this is a guy that can beat you. I thought he played great tonight. You try to make him work, but he was still running his team. They weren't forcing shots.

On Vols' defense, wearing shot clock down:
"I thought we did a good job in a four- or five-play sequence where we got the shot clock down to 5 ... 4 ... 3, then all of a sudden a guy hits a 3 or they get an offensive rebound. "That can't happen."

Tennessee Senior Guard Cameron TatumOn a game:
"That's what it's all about, it's all about winning. We just fell short today"

On not being able to get a key defensive stop late in the game:
"It was like that all game. We would make a run here and they would come and answer back. We just couldn't get the stops we needed and it came back to bite us toward the end."

On Oakland making 28-of-31 on free throws:
"That's the key for us, we have to be able to play defense, but you have to play without fouling. Too many hand-check fouls, too many ticky-tack fouls. If you are playing a team like that, especially at home with good shooters, you can't play aggressive defense and foul. You are not going to win the ballgame."

On playing defense against strong shooters:
"(Hamilton) had some good players around him and he played an outstanding game. We have to take a little bit more pride across the board for everybody and stop everybody that's on the floor. We have to respect every opponent that we step up against and play to the wall when we are out there."

On rebounding late in the first half:
"That was one of the main points that coach put on the board: defensive rebounds. It's something that we try to drill in every practice, defensive rebounds, that wins ball games, not necessarily how many points you score. As we are seeing, in the three games we have lost that's been the common denominator, of why we are losing the games. We just haven't been defending as well."

On struggles in the low post:
"It was a combination of a couple of things. It might have been their defense, it might have been myself and (our) guards trying to force into them and not making sure they get the ball in the right spots. Getting good angles on the post feeds and the post players not getting the right angle, deep enough. It was a combination of both the guards and the bigs, we just have to do a better job of working together and feeding off each other. We have work well together - inside-out and outside in."

On facing Pitt on Saturday:
"It will be a very tough game with Pitt. They crash the boards very hard, so we better be ready. If we think (Oakland) crashed, we better we ready for Pittsburgh. I remember how they were last year. Practice is going to be nothing but defensive rebounding. We better be ready when they come after us."